Monthly Archives: March 2005

It’s not just the peasants revolting

The FT is running a poll on its site; to which, I believe, only subscribers have access. And among the people prepared to pay Continue reading

Posted in War | Comments Off on It’s not just the peasants revolting

oh, jesus

From Billmon, a sighting of a sentimental crusader. The really awful thing, when I look at this story, is that I know what the cries of a PVS patient sound like. In the Cheshire Home where I met my first … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in God | Comments Off on oh, jesus

Bad news for PZ Myers

John Brockman, who is, amongst other things, the agent of both Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett, explains his religious views: I would never say I’m an atheist. But I mean – it’s the word. I don’t believe: I’m sure there’s … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in God | 7 Comments

Looking and Seeing

What I love about photography is that it stops me looking at the world, and forces me to try to see it a little instead. When I am writing, thinking about writing, or even thinking of the usual nothing, I … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | 7 Comments

this little river

has been electrofished. I know it’s small, but there are at least three trout over four pounds living wild in there, and one, I’m told, over five. Yet there are places you can cross it in Wellington boots, and nowhere, … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Trouty things | Comments Off on this little river

Lunch with Rupert Sheldrake

We had talked at a party at the Royal Society, and I liked him and was curious. So I went round for lunch at his house in Hampstead. One glorious anecdote emerged: in 1963 he was finishing his degree at … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | Comments Off on Lunch with Rupert Sheldrake

switch doctoring

I have been fascinated by placebos ever since the late Pat Wall gave a talk about them at a symposium on consciousness in the early Nineties. It was very small and very select; the report of the procedings costs an … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Science without worms | 4 Comments

Spring is here

I know this, because I have started sneezing at 5.30 every morning and the ladybirds are making shyly indecent suggestions to each other. Also because my walks by the river have shown the first rabbit, the first heron, innumerable wrens … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Blather | 2 Comments

For the sake of argument

Armand-Marie Leroi had an op-ed in the NYT last week, plugging his interview on the Brockman website Edge. In general, he argued that scientists ought to recognise race and research it, contra gloomy old obscurantists like Stephen J Gould. I … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Science without worms | Comments Off on For the sake of argument

letters to learn

Some weeks ago I wrote about the IDN vulnerabilities in Opera and Firefox. These arise from the fact that many unicode letters resemble one another. Now there is a quick visual illustration of the size of the problem — someone … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Net stories | Comments Off on letters to learn